ANDALUCIA, Spain — She might be a rookie, but Maja Stark has done this before. The 23-year-old got to cut her teeth in a professional team match-play competition earlier this year, getting her first taste of representing Sweden as a pro at the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown alongside Caroline Hedwall, Anna Nordqvist and Madelene Sagstrom, all of whom are on this year’s European Solheim Cup team.
It was the first time since her amateur days that Stark had donned the Blue and Yellow and gone out to battle with her fellow countrywomen by her side, helping earn 2.5 points for the Sweden Team across her five total matches in San Francisco.
So, while Stark is new to the Solheim Cup experience this week at Finca Cortesin, she at least has a little bit of an idea of what to expect thanks to that week at TPC Harding Park.
“I didn't do anything different than I have before when I played match play. I just learned what I usually learn during a round of golf. I didn't really see it as anything different,” said Stark who earned 2.5 points for the Sweden team with her play at the International Crown. “Solheim is going to be like Crown but a thousand times more emotions and things going on. I think just not focusing on what the other players do, even though that can kind of hype me up. Sometimes I get over-hyped when I start thinking about what [the] other person’s doing.”
Stark is one of eight rookies competing in this year’s Solheim Cup, three of whom are European, and she is one of five Swedish players who make up nearly half of the European team. Not including this year, there have been 12 different Swedes who have played for their country in a Solheim Cup, and with players like Helen Alfredsson, Liselotte Neumann and Annika Sorenstam among those past participants, it’s clear just how strong the Swedish contingency has been throughout the event’s history.
Stark remembers watching plenty of Solheim Cup golf growing up and is looking forward to competing with some of the women whose highlights she remembers seeing on television in her youth. It’s also super enjoyable for her to get to tee it up alongside some of her closest friends on the LPGA Tour and work together towards a common goal rather than chasing a paycheck and an individual title like she does on a weekly basis.
“It’s fun to have people that I know so well already on the team, and it’s cool to see that Swedish golf has been doing good stuff for years because it's not the first time that there's a bunch of Swedes on a Solheim team,” Stark said. “Caroline (Hedwall) is the big star that I looked up to for a long time, especially since the Solheim Cup 10 years ago where she went 5-0. And Anna (Nordqvist) having all those wins. Caroline and Anna play a lot together in the Solheim as well. I've looked up to both of them for a long time.”
The six-time Ladies European Tour winner turned professional in 2021 and is technically in her second season on the LPGA Tour after becoming a 2022 LPGA Tour rookie following her win at the ISPS Handa World Invitational last August. One of those six LET titles came this season at the Lalla Meryem Cup and Stark has earned five top-10 results on the LPGA Tour in 2023, most notably finishing in a tie for ninth at the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links.
And while she’s not yet a battle-tested Solheim Cup veteran, the Swede does bring plenty of experience derived from representing her country as an amateur to the table, even if she’s still a touch green doing so as a pro.
She participated in the 2016 and 2017 European Girls’ Team Championship as well as the 2017 Junior Solheim Cup. Stark also made four appearances at the European Ladies’ Team Championship, helping lead Sweden to victory in 2019, 2020 and 2021, and she teed it up in the 2020 Arnold Palmer Cup, again lifting her squad to victory. Of course, the Junior Solheim Cup experience is one of the ones that stands out and Stark remembers one interaction in particular with a player you may not expect.
“One of my strongest memories was of Brittany Lincicome because she was the first player on any of the teams to start talking to us younger players,” Stark remembered.” It was just so nice of her because I thought of them as like, untouchable and just so cool. It was nice to see even the big stars take the time to talk to these little 17-year-olds. My chin was on the ground because I couldn’t believe that she was actually talking to me. I hope that maybe I could do that for someone.”
As she looks ahead to the excitement and adrenaline that awaits her on Friday morning, Stark hopes that she will have plenty to contribute to the European team on the golf course. Off the golf course, she wants to maintain her self-described “Golden Retriever” energy throughout the week and keep things as upbeat and light as possible in what will be a pressure-packed week for the Euros as they work to win their third consecutive Solheim Cup.
But overall, like the rest of her fellow 2023 Solheim Cup rookies, Stark hopes to be able to take it all in and not get too caught up in the moment, fully appreciating the opportunity to represent her home country on one of the biggest stages in all of women’s professional golf.
“Come in here being a rookie and not really knowing everyone, I was pretty nervous. But it's been great. Everyone is so nice and it's very relaxed,” Stark said. “All of my experiences of team competitions have been so good that I don't expect this to be any (different). I think that I'm going to be happy because it's in Spain, huge crowds, lots of pressure, but it's still in a team environment. I really like this team that we have that I don't see why I wouldn't be happy.”
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